yellow door 1

If weather permits this weekend. I’ll give the old Jarvis walker fibreglass nibble tip -a head to head challenge with the daiwa scratchy graphite stick

Yeah we used to catch 40 pinkies for every snook on lures. The standard snook take was a noticeable single take - no warnings with missed hits - then a bit more weight than normal - then they would come to boat quite easily in a slow arc. Then when you pulled there heads up to the surface, they would shake their heads and slice through 8lb leader and steal your lure. But occasionally you would get one that put on the after burners and went nuts - usually the bigger than average units. I watched them getting air bourne while smashing gars, so they do have the ability to generate power

This should shave a few seconds off the braid reversing process

Yeah if I break up a 300m spool - a 100m top shot of 8lb braid currently costs me $3.16. But when I think of all the extra effort I go to save $6 by not just using the whole 300m of braid per reel - Its bordering on my limits for effort vs money saved But it all stems back to my bream on plastic days, when I used to buy 120 yard top shots of braid, for up to 10 times the price I pay now. Using top shots is how Ive always done it - so Ive just continued doing it. Back in the day - top shotting would save me $60 a reel - so there was really no questions to be asked - but the

Yeah my braid shopping is all online these days - and I tend to buy bulk spools and break them up into 100m top shots to stretch the dollars a bit further. So all my spooling is done at home - the lengths Ill go to, to save a few bucks, sometimes doesnt even make sense to me.

Yeah if I wasnt a tight arse using 100m top shots of braid - life would be a lot simpler when it comes to respooling - Just slap on a a few hundred metres of straight braid and then the jobs done But these line spoolers came about because I would often do up to 4 reels at a time - so my fingers would be nearly falling off if I tried to do that manually. Reel on Braid first, then the mono backing to fill out the spool then unspool then reverse then respool Completing that process once in row is not something I look forward to - but doing it 4 times in a row manually would

Had to google what Mud guard washers were - Nice. Yeah I wasnt quite sure what Diameter washers I would need for the variety of different spools I had - and the standard washer looked a bit little. But I do have a shed full of ply offcuts and a hole saw kit - Dodgy mudflap washers of all sizes on tap

Although I use a bottle top with a drill attachment and 2 litre bottle to take old line off.( Stuff that’s going in the bin.) a guy on face book just mentioned he cuts knife grooves into a spool and then just cuts it off over a bin so now I have a back up plan if I can’t find my bottle top

free style was a mix of hand winding - dodgy "knocked up on the spot" drill attachments that kept malfunctioning - and alot of swearing I kept trying to do the bare minimum to get it to work and it ended up taking forever with all sorts of complications. Everything was just a smidge out of whack but I only had one reel to do - so I thought Id just try to get it done with the wrong tools - huge mistake The tension wasnt there - and the spool kept slipping on the drill - I hadnt been that frustrated in a while

2 tennis balls and a stick are another option

I use one of these for light tension

I couldnt find my old braid reversing spools the other day so I tried doing it freestyle - what a nightmare that was. So it was straight down to the Hardware the next day to make a new set

Yeah I reckon you're right. Taste is personal and Im a marginally better chef these days - so I reckon I'll revisit some of these species I'd written off in the past Ive written off a few fish because they didnt compare well, when eaten side by side with others cooked in the exact same way. My expectations of how fish should taste and their texture is based of the ones Ive eaten most often in the past. Goat fish are another one that some people rave about, that I release. Snook and Goat dont make up a huge percentage of our overall catch, so its easy enough to just chuck em back

Ive only ever eaten one snook. It was caught that morning and eaten side by side with pinkie and flathead fillets from the same session. I didnt enjoy it enough to justify killing another one for myself........ But if someone was swapping them for $20 notes I'd be killing plenty as a revenge for all the bitten off lures One of our mates dad used to like em, so we would keep a few for him

Some good points made here - cant comment on the lures but.... when bait fishing from a boat with a couple of other blokes - fibreglass is great - dont have to worry about snapping tips and high sticking - can just skull drag the fish into the boat. You can feel comfortable handing your rod to inexperienced people knowing they are going to have to try very hard to snap the tip But with lite graphite - instead of just flipping them into the boat with the rod - I'll bend over and grab the leader to bring each fish in. Which complicates things and will make you jealous of the bloke

Much closer than I was though the spot I built them for has a bit of a muddy slope leading to the waters edge so I stand a bit further back. Rushing in and then bending down to get the rod was not the smoothest draw

like a new born giraffes legs I did want some thing sturdier but I had to be able to push them into dirt by hand - so I had to keep them spindly. The only sturdier steel i had would need a hammer and that would send shock waves through the shallow little pond I made them for. I stuffed up some strikes and missed some fish last week due to my unco rod removal from the low to the ground holder - the raised holders were a reaction to that. I used them today and the extra height is great - unfortunately only one eel showed up to annoy me - the lake was teeming with decent reds last

Zero use on big fish - but good for the ones I plan to target with these holders

Haha Thanks mate - Yeah the one that's self cocking, had 3 split shot embedded into the glue end cap as it dried. I like the idea of self cocking floats. Less chance for tangles. And I looooove the way an unweighted bait drifts slowly to the bottom in still or lightly flowing water. They can also be jerked back to the surface so they slowly fall again which Ive found is good for triggering hits. So they suit my style With the end plugs and a pair of scissors, I can change the buoyancy by cutting the straw a bit shorter - or the more traditional way of adding split shot to the line.

Now also available in “rubber float stop friendly” set up

Job done on the inserts - could not get a snugger fit - thanks for the tip Wert - that opens up a few more doors - went with hot glue for its strength and speed of drying

I spose I could just fill up a straw with silicone - let it set - then cut it open and use them for plugs. Or cut a point, so a small segment of silicon filled straw can be inserted and act as ballast and a plug

I have made one with internal ballast - so its self cocking - but I havent looked into end caps you can remove before. And suggestions on what those caps should be made from would be welcome Just googled up these silicon inserts which would do it if I could find a diametre match for my straws